Dementia presenting as postpartum depression.

BACKGROUND: Other conditions that can mimic postpartum depression are rare but must be considered. CASE: A 37-year-old woman developed mood symptoms as well as progressive hyperphagia, hypersexuality, disinhibition, and impairment of judgment after delivery of her third child. She was unresponsive to multiple treatments for depression and was evaluated for frontal lobe syndromes. CONCLUSION: Frontotemporal dementia, formerly known as Pick disease, is a primary degenerative dementia for which no cause is clearly established. Family history or genetic abnormalities are found in about 50% of cases. The diagnosis is frequently missed or delayed, as in this case, because it occurs in a younger age group, presents with unusual signs and symptoms, and is far less prevalent than Alzheimer disease.

Duke Scholars

Author Diana Lynn Dell Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Adult Psychiatry & Psychol ...